Acts of Devotion
by Arcbound Illusionist
Summary: Yamamoto Takeshi, Tsuna's Rain Guardian and friend, is known for his devotion, a devotion so strong, yet so wicked.
1. Prologue

Hi... it's been a long time since I have written for Reborn!  
I want to share this story that has been occupying my mind for years now...  
I hope you like the prologue...  
don't worry, this is not yaoi (but might twist this into this one...), but will focus on friendship and a lot of other dark themes between Yamamoto and Tsuna...  
hope you enjoy...

* * *

Prologue

"Mom! Mom! Can you please dial again? I'm at work."

He could not hear the voice of his mother from the opposite line. The booming sound of club music was ringing throughout the bar, and his chosen solace, the bar's restroom, certainly did nothing to make him hear his mom.

"What did you say?"

"I SAID CALL-"

And the music stopped. Takeru sighed,

"Hello, Mom. Sorry about that."

"Hey, Take-chan. Your dad was rushed to the clinic earlier. He is doing well now, but the doctor asked us to buy some medicine. I hope you could send your money within the week to buy for your father's meds."

The younger guy sighed, "Okay, Mom. I'll ask my boss if I could get an advance. Anything else."

"Take-chan, I'm very sorry for this one… I know that this is a sacrifice on your part and you shouldn't be enjoying your life better…"

Silence crept inside the venue. Awkward silence. His voice, the sole sound in the said place, has turned out garbled, giving him goosebumps.

"It's okay, Mom. As long as it's for the family."

"Thank you, son."

Takeru dropped the phone and as he opened the room, he felt weird, very weird.

All of a sudden, his vision became hazy and blurry. Strobing red lights started to become purplish. Air, viscous and thick, had taken away the oxygen that his lungs needed, making him grasp for air. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale. And yet he could not exhale. As if oxygen is running. Arms becoming heavy… very heavy… very… as if… as if…?

That's enough.

And with that word, everything reverted to normal. Takeru, still catching his breath, had his eyes fixated over the scene laid out on his eyes.

A guy, bearing a disheveled brown hair, was sitting on the bar stool and was holding an empty shot glass. Beside him was a black-haired man, obviously taller than the other guy who carefully took the stool next to the man. He was currently putting something in his coat's inside pocket.

Takeru then had his eyes on the floor. His eyes, which were already big according to his mom, got wider when he saw numerous people lying on the floor, even the waiters and the singers were on the ground too. Chills crawled through his skin as he saw the two people casually having a chat, the taller guy asking about the smaller guy's hearing.

Out of curiosity, he reached out to the waitress nearest him. Using his mediocre first-aid skill, he grabbed the woman's wrist and tried to locate its pulse but to no avail. In the back of his mind, he was wondering where his skills were when he needed them the most. He didn't study for 6 months just to fail.

"It's too late. They all drowned," the black-haired man commented.

Drowned?

And he saw the man who was his boss, smiling as if his answer was the most logical reason for such a place. Meanwhile, the brown-haired man, who was no other than Tsunayoshi Sawada, took out his phone and called a familiar person.

"Haze Bar. Yeah. Basically. Drowned." and after that, he gave the phone to the black-haired man. Apparently, the said man, who was called Takeshi, had the phone two-inches away from his ear, trying to avoid the barrage of profanities on the other end.

Takeru was aghast.

How can these guys act like these?

At that time, he started planning to resign on the spot. Never in his wildest dreams that we would be working for these crazy people. Tears started falling from his eyes, out of anger, and disgust over his bosses. And then, he felt a warm embrace coming from the Decimo.

"Sorry about what happened. It's all my fault."

Takeru shrugged Tsuna's embrace and shouted, "Get off me! Get off me! You're a killer! Monster!"

"Do you think I am a monster?"

"A monster! A killer! You killed innocent people, Vongola! You killed them!"

"Yes, I am a monster, Takeru. But I do advise that you stop shouting for your own good."

"You know, Vongola, I quit. Do you hear me? I QU-"

Unfazed, Tsuna wiped off the drop of blood that got onto his face using his hand and tasted it. "I'll make sure that your family will help the need that they need."

"Are your ears okay now?" Yamamoto asked, wiping the blood off from his sword.

"Yeah."

Yamamoto kneeled and uttered, "I'm sorry, Tsuna. I didn't know that this place will be very noisy. I should have brought you to a better place."

"Nah, it's alright. And prepare for Gokudera's rant once he learns about Takeru."

Yamamoto stood up and smiled, "Nothing to be done. He's noisy."

"Let's go."

"Hai," and the swordsman whistled a happy tune as both stepped out of the bar.

* * *

Hope you like it.

Comments and criticisms are highly encouraged.


	2. Chapter 1 - Morning Coffee

Finally, here's the first chapter of the series.  
Well, I decided that there would be no yaoi on this series... this will just be focused on friendship and other things about them...

* * *

Chapter 1 - Morning Coffee

Yamamoto took a sip from his morning coffee that he himself prepared, and somehow, he found it a bit strong. He would have wanted it a bit sweet, but the lack of an associate and the distance of the pantry made him bear with the bitter coffee.

He took a glance at his office. His eyes went from the brown wooden room on his from to the black room from his side of the wall. He also smiled at the portraits hanging on the wall. From the walls, his focus was gathered at the expensive sofa set that Tsuna gave him as a gift months ago for his office. The fixture satisfactorily filled up for the tables that were transferred to Gokudera's office, except for one where Takeru used to occupy.

When his mind started to wander elsewhere, the door opened and showed a furious Gokudera who marched to his table and cried,

"Hey, bird for brains! Do you have an idea as to how hard it is to find an associate willing to work for your division?"

Yamamoto chuckled, "I guess it isn't that hard. Besides, I know that you could find someone for me."

Gokudera went to the Rain Guardian, and showed him a piece of paper, "Look at this paper, moron. Look at this!"

"Hmmm…" the taller man mused, "I see that there are a lot of prospects."

"Dumbass! Those aren't prospects. Those are your former associates for the past 3 months." The Storm Guardian started reading the names written on the paper, "Yamaguchi Kowako, Arai Masahiro, Jin Yuuta, and three other freaking people that we have to declare '_MIA_'."

"That's good. Although I would suggest that it would be better if you state _work-related accident_."

A strong force banged the table, causing the documents to ramble. "Accident?"

Yamamoto smiled weakly.

"ACCIDENT?"

"Somehow…"

And Gokudea exploded, "How dare you to call all of these things _work related accident_? You son-of-a-moron! You kill them all and then you just say _work-related accident_! The fuck with this, nuthead! I'm done!" and he stormed out of the room.

Yamamoto stood from his desk and managed to get into the door before the silver-haired guy. He blocked the passage and said, "Sorry, Gokudera. I will tell you what you need to know about last night."

"This better be worth my time, nuthead." as he sat at the round sofa on the center of the room.

* * *

_No one is around._

_No one is around._

_No one is around._

_Maybe, it was supposed to end like this. _

_He smirked, looking at how the concrete thirty meters below would catch him into its cradles. He felt the deafening sound of wind through his ears, and he cringed._

_How did it become like this?  
_

* * *

"Like what happened before, his head started to hurt and he started complaining about the place being noisy."

"And then?"

"I was supposed to get him out of the bar. However, he said that he wanted to chill there, so I had no choice but to make the bar silent."

"Why don't you tell the fucking floor manager to be silent?"

"Not that silent. He wants me to _silent_ it, Gokudera."

"Shit." was the only word that the Storm Guardian uttered upon realizing it. "So you mean…"

Yamamoto nodded. "Except for the girls though. You know how they died, if you know what I mean."

"You don't need to flaunt your trust issues," he muttered.

"Bitches are bitches."

"Could you please get over with that, will you? I'm thinking,"

"Sorry. Sorry"

Now, Gokudera was getting the wider perspective as to why Yamamoto dispatched his subordinates. "But wait, how come this latest one got slashed?"

"Well," Yamamoto scratched his head and continued, "uhm… I forgot why I slashed him."

"The hell?"

A voice, modulated yet commanding, continued the Rain Guardian's story, "While he was doing it, Takeru was inside the restroom, talking to his mom. Then, when he came out, he became hysterical upon seeing the corpses which hit my nerve. So that's why Yamomoto killed him."

Both looked at the direction where the voice came from. There, they saw Sawada Tsunayoshi, standing nonchalantly and bearing an expressionless face from the other door.

"Uhm.. Tenth…"

"It's my fault."

The Storm Guardian muttered, "It's alright, Tenth. You did nothing wrong. We can find a new replacement for him."

Yamomoto said, "Hey, how come when it comes to Tsuna, you're that sweet and kind. But why when it comes to me, you're always shouting. It's unfair."

"That's how the world is. Get lost."

"Still not fair," he feigned. He looked at Tsuna and asked, "Tsuna, I also deserve kind treatment from Gokudera, right?"

"I guess so," was the only reply.

The Storm Guardian grabbed the Rain's collar and hissed,

"Nuthead, listen to this because I will only tell this once."

No voice came out from the former baseball player's mouth. Yamamoto nodded in fear.

Sound of the air conditioner filled the entire room.

After a short moment, Gokudera loosened his grip on Yamamoto's collar and left the room quietly. The other man was still speechless and a small smile was left in his lips.

"I'm sorry, Yamamoto."

"What did he tell you?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yeah."

A moment of seriousness ruled over the place.

"He really is like that."

"I guess so. That's what makes him Gokudera."

"Hey, let's go to the cafeteria. I'm hungry."

"Let's go now."

* * *

"_It's dangerous over there, Yamamoto-kun!"_

_He looked where the voice came from, and from its direction appeared a boy with brown hair. The boy was a familiar face, Tsunayoshi Sawada. He could remember the boy from his section. How great of him to come here, he thought._

"_What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here."_

_The boy replied, "You're not supposed to be there as well. You have baseball practice, right?"_

"_No, they kicked me out from the baseball club. Practically, because," he breathed, "I'm useless."_

"_You're not useless."_

"_I am."_

_Sawada stepped nearer, "You're not." _

"_Without my arms, I have nothing."_

"_So you think an injury will make yourself useless?"_

"_It's not just that! Because of this," and tears had started to fall from his eyes, "My fans don't like me anymore."_

_Sawada realized that he was now steps away from his classmates, "_

"_You fans can understand that you'll get better."_

"_They don't like me anymore. My teammates call me useless now. I have no friends."_

_Yamamoto saw that the other boy stiffened. Then, he saw his eyes got watery. _

"_If you define yourself based on that, then you are useless."_

"_Look who's talking," the baseball player replied. "What guts do you have to tell me that, huh?"_

_The other boy looked at him, a bit surprised on Yamamoto's reaction._

"_You're just a nobody, Sawada. You don't even have friends."_

_Sawada shouted, "Besides, If you have friends, they should be the ones here, not me."_

"_Who cares? I'm not a loser! You get bullied every day. You fail the tests. You can't even do a decent kick."_

"_So what? Should I kill myself with that? _

_"The hell-"_

_"Saying that, I think you should be ashamed of yourself."_

"_What the fuck?"_

"_I always fail my tests. I suck at sports. I don't have friends. But never in my life did I attempt to kill myself. Even though I see this school as hell, I still have the urge to live because I know that my mom will always be there at home. How about your dad? You still have your dad, right?_

_Yamamoto fell silent._

_The boy was right, he realized._

* * *

Well, I hope you find the chapter interesting.

Try to comment as well for criticisms and improvements. :)


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